How Lions cobbled together a staff without head coach, coordinator
Detroit Lions substitute head coach Robert Prince tried to sound upbeat when he thanked his coaches and staff for his or her efforts in a Saturday’s 47-7 slaughter at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Ford Field.
“First of all,” Prince stated as he adjusted his visor, “I would like to thank the entire staff.”
Yes, it was a sport stuffed with changes — and gratitude for a hearty-if-futile effort by anyone wearing Honolulu Blue and Silver.
COVID-19 protocols pressured the Lions to take the sphere without 5 of their coaches, together with interim head coach Darrell Bevell. They have been additionally without defensive coordinator Cory Undlin, line of defense coach Bo Davis, linebackers coach Ty McKenzie and secondary coach Steve Gregory.
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They all took half in game-planning for the week however weren’t allowed to have contact with the workforce or their fill-in coaches as soon as the sport began.
So Prince served as head coach. Quarterbacks coach Sean Ryan referred to as offensive performs from the sales space, and Evan Rothstein, a teaching assistant who has labored totally on particular initiatives and analytics throughout his 9 seasons in Detroit, referred to as defensive performs. Defensive assistant Tony Carter coached the defensive backs. Director of soccer analysis David Corrao coached the linebackers, and training assistant Ty Warren coached the line of defense.
“Preparing this week (was) a little bit difficult,” Prince stated, “but I thought Evan did a great job helping with the defense, and with Sean taking over, tremendous opportunity for those guys. And also with Marquice (Williams coaching) special teams, it was a great effort by those guys and the rest of the guys.”
Almost forgotten in all of the COVID-19-related teaching turmoil was that Williams had been appointed to take over for special teams coordinator Brayden Coombs, who was fired Monday following a fake-punt call at Tennessee.
Prince credited Bevell with making ready him as a lot as attainable in the course of the week.
“Well really, Bev was still very involved with everything,” he stated. “And really it was during practice when I really ran the team and then also during the game basically.
“So a different challenge than what coach Bev had, where coach Bev had to take everything over. Bev was still heavily involved during the week, and like I said, I ran the practice and then I ran the game.”
After Matthew Stafford left the sport early within the first quarter with ankle damage issues solely received worse. But backup Chase Daniel stated the veteran expertise of the coaches helped guarantee gamers.
“It took all of us, but those dudes have been around for a long time,” Daniel stated. “Sean has won a couple rings, or one ring at least with the (New York) Giants. I mean, he’s been around. R.P. is a legend in his own right. I think both those guys handled their jobs seriously but also had a little fun with it.
“Unfortunately, we just got down so much today. We got our butts kicked today, and it’s no fun, and I feel for them a little bit. I wish we could’ve, offensively at least, come out and helped them out a little bit, but we weren’t able to.”
The Lions didn’t cross midfield on offense till 14:16 remained within the sport. Their solely factors got here courtesy of a 74-yard Jamal Agnew punt return touchdown within the third quarter that minimize the deficit to 40-7.
Agnew stated after the sport the landing was a testomony to how all the workforce stored competing.
“Oh, no doubt, the effort is definitely there,” he stated. “I just don’t think the execution was there, to be honest. We didn’t make the plays in the certain situations that we needed to.
“Obviously, that first drive, we had that big offsides kill a little bit of momentum. It’s just those type of plays that we have to lock in and execute. We can’t blame it on scheme or anything.”
Contact Carlos Monarrez at [email protected] and comply with him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
